Mao Shows Up a Bit Late at World War Two Conference

Tourists walk in Tiananmen Square in front of scaffolding next to the portrait of late communist leader Mao Zedong.

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History, it is said, is written by the victors. But sometimes the victors stray just a little too far from reality.

That seems to be the case with promotional material being used for the soon-to-be-released The Cairo Declaration, a movie produced by the Chinese army's August First Film Studio and the Communist Party propaganda department in the southwestern megacity of Chongqing.

A screenshot of the film's poster.

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The movie about the 1943 gathering of Allied leaders hasn’t made its official debut yet, but one of the promotional posters has already aroused ridicule and derision on Chinese social media for the great lengths taken to glorify the role of the Communist Party – and revolutionary leader Mao Zedong -- in the crushing of Japan.

The poster implies that it was Mao who attended the conference that produced the famed declaration on the struggle against Japan and post-war plans for the territories it had seized. Alas, Mao was nowhere to be seen in Cairo at the time -- it was Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek who represented China, joining Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill at the historic gathering.

The motion picture is set to be released in time for the September 3 celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of the surrender of Japan and the end of World War Two. Beijing is anxiously preparing a special anti-Fascist parade for the occasion.

Netizens made their own parodies of the poster.

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August First Film Studio is already trying to distance itself from the promotional activity about the Cairo Declaration – sort of in a state of de-Nile, if you will. It declined to comment on the promotional campaign, referring China Real Time to a private company – Bona Film Group – which is handling the film’s distribution. They, too, said they were not in a position to comment on the film’s promotion.

A spokeswoman from the film’s production team told China Real Time that the Mao-themed poster was “just one poster of the film” and that more would be released down the line. She added that the film team had “no intention of hyping” the movie through the use of Mao’s image.

“The poster just shows some characters of the film, not a scene on the meeting,” said the spokeswoman, who declined to be named. “As the film’s director told us, Mao’s part is not a major one in the film. But we need to respect history, as a not-major part in the film does not mean Mao did not exist in that period of history at all.”

“Our film is made from an international perspective, which also covers other parts of that history, not only the meeting. … The film’s theme is love and peace,” she added.

Social media had no shortage of comments about the poster.

“When did Chiang Kai-shek begin to have hair?” asked one bemused Weibo microblog user, alluding to the familiar shaven head of the Nationalist leader – who was later defeated by the Communists and forced to flee to Taiwan.

“The next film will show Mao flying a plane and dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima,” said a Weibo user. “I think it’s just their dirty way to advertise the move and attract attention,” said another.

The author inserts himself into the debate.

One group helpfully offered a way for Internet users to create a role for themselves – at least for promotional purposes. (The author made use of this feature to show his own essential role at the 1943 conference, despite the fact that it was held some seven years before he was born.)

Even the Global Times felt obliged to get into the act, publishing a commentary saying the poster – and whoever was behind it -- had gone too far.

“It’s not appropriate to create a poster that emphasizes Mao so much,” a commentator for the nationalistic tabloid wrote.

In a report on Monday, the same newspaper – which is linked to the party mouthpiece People’s Daily – quoted a staff member of the film as saying that the production was not a publicity stunt and that featuring Mao was “a way to pay tribute to the Communist Party of China’s contributions during the war.”

China Real Time has not yet seen the film. Perhaps it will turn out to be a bit like Woody Allen’s famous “mockumentary” Zelig – about a fictional character who makes impossible appearances at historic occasions.

And it wasn’t just Mao who got a fictional plug. One of the posters also showed Soviet leader Joseph Stalin – who was another no-show at Cairo – and at that point the Soviet Union wasn’t even at war with Japan.

Perhaps we should cut August First Film Studio and its movie promoters a little more slack.

Movies are often far from historical truth – not to mention elementary physics.Other imaginative Chinese films feature mid-air sword fights and fictional heroes like the beloved and all-powerful Monkey King who can transform himself into just about any object, somersault his way across great distances and cast spells on demons.

So perhaps there really isn’t anything wrong with some historical figures taking on a few supernatural powers as well.